No sunspot monitoring information was issued yesterday, April 23, 2018, due to unfavorable weather condition (mostly cloudy) at the proposed time of observation.

The lone visible sunspot group AR2706, though continuously gradually growing in structure, has been quiet and did not produce any significant flaring activity as solar activity remains relatively very low over the past 24 hours.  The latest sunspot number (based on visual count and Wolf number calculation) is 18. Few eruptive prominences at the western limb and tiny plages (most distinctive at AR2706) across the Sun’s visible disk were clearly seen in H-alpha imagery.

Space weather agencies* forecast solar activity to remain relatively low with chances of continuity of isolated B-class (possibly up to C-class) solar flaring activity mainly from AR2706. The extent of the frequency and intensity of the Sun’s activity will highly depend on the magnetic flux fluctuations happening in the visible ARs in the coming days. Close monitoring is being conducted by numerous space weather agencies for any significant development.

*TECHNICAL REPORTS COURTESY OF SOLAR INFLUENCE DATA CENTER (SIDC), NOAA-SPACE WEATHER PREDICTION CENTER (NOAA-SWPC)

*FALSE-COLOR VISIBLE AND MONOCHROME H-ALPHA IMAGERY COURTESY OF SPACEWEATHER.COM AND DAYSTARFILTERS.COM RESPECTIVELY